Expensive TV ad campaigns fail to influence Christmas shopping choices - survey

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Dec 1, 2016

Christmas TV ads have little effect on where consumers do their Christmas shopping, a new poll from MoneySavingExpert shows.

The website surveyed 11,500 consumers with only 1% of respondents saying that high profile ads like M&S’s Mrs Claus or John Lewis’s Boxer the Buster have a big impact on their shopping choices.

Another 10% noted a very small impact and as many as 69% said they feel that such ads have no impact at all.

Additionally, 2% of those asked said they don’t have a TV and so don’t see these campaigns, while 7% said the ads were entertaining but they couldn’t remember which stores they were for. A worrying 9% said they even find glossy Christmas campaigns a complete turn-off and that makes them avoid the stores concerned.

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It has been estimated that large retailers, among them the key department store chains such as Debenhams, House of Fraser, Harvey Nichols, John Lewis and M&S, will spend around £5.6bn this year on their Christmas campaigns, according to figures from the Advertising Association/WARC.

A headline-grabbing Christmas campaign has become a must-have for many UK stores in recent years and budgets have soared, with retailers hiring big name directors, celebrities and animators for cinematic-style ads.

This year, Janet McTeer stars for M&S while Burberry has Sienna Miller. Meanwhile fashion specialist H&M hired Wes Anderson to create its festive campaign.